------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Clayton City Council,
COMPLAINT # 1
It is very disturbing that our City Manager, Bret Prebula, is trying to blame Gary and me, and other Clayton residents for all the questions, concerns, and complaints he is receiving regarding construction occurring on the Olivia site.
Apparently, he sent an email to the entire city council (and possibly others) accusing us of harassing him and city staff over Olivia. It appears he believes asking questions is harassment. I view these accusations very seriously and I am quite surprised he didn’t reach out to us before complaining to the entire city council about these baseless claims. I also find it hard to believe, as a professional city manager, that he thought this approach was a good idea as I have never seen this backward approach work.
Moreover, a city manager would have to be pretty naive not to know that whenever construction would start at Olivia, it would generate a lot of questions, concerns, and community outrage.
This is a housing project the community did not support, a project the community believes the city did not listen to or address their concerns, a project the community believes the city put the interest of the developer above the concerns of the residents, a project that would have an enormous impact on Historic Downtown and our little town, a project residents were so opposed to because of the huge impact it would have on their quality of life, that they filed a lawsuit against the city. Some community members believe the city is in the pocket of a less-than-credible developer.
Based on the above, in my professional opinion, most, if not all, of the questions, concerns, and complaints about Olivia's construction could have been avoided if Bret had been proactive instead of reactive. He created his own mess by his inaction on this project. He should have gotten out in front of this issue by developing and implementing a community outreach program before construction started on Olivia. (Without going into a lot of detail, an effective plan would include, community outreach meetings with impacted residents, enforcement of the COAs, an effective communications plan, and oversight, etc., etc.).
I have to assume his staff advised him of the start date, and instead of getting out in front of this issue, Bret has been chasing it. This is eating up a lot of his time and staff time. He is still not forthcoming with information, and he has handed off communications to Kennedy and Associates. According to their contract, this is not one of their responsibilities.
If you know what you are doing is not working, and you are getting overwhelmed, a good crisis manager would pull resources together, develop a plan to address the situation, and change direction, and not blame others for the outrage. In my opinion, these are all huge missteps on his part.
I also find it hard to believe he does not understand the public's anger when he continually tells them Olivia is an approved project that has been fully litigated when they complain about the lack of oversight. It is never a good idea to put people on the defensive to avoid criticism and start the blame game, especially when you are a public official and are on the public's payroll.
Bottom line, instead of developing an effective community outreach plan ahead of Olivia's construction, he let construction start without any community notification or outreach and then seemed to be surprised/outraged when people had questions, concerns, and complaints. Apparently, he doesn’t understand the value of effective communication.
I would like to put this issue to bed. Therefore, I would ask the city council to encourage Bret to do a reassessment of his harassment accusations and publicly retract these statements, and apologize to Gary and me.
COMPLAINT # 2
On to another serious incident. I attended a meeting on Wednesday, October 18th, at City Hall where Gary Hood, Bret Prebula, Larry Theis, Andrew Kennedy from Kennedy and Associates, were in attendance. Gary arranged this meeting with Bret so we could work out some of the oversight issues we were observing on Olivia.
When Brett agreed to meet on the 18th, I was encouraged by the fact that Bret said he we would have his team (city engineer and a representative from Kennedy and Associates) at the meeting. I have always found it beneficial to have all the players involved at the table.
To me, this was going to be a meeting to discuss Olivia's oversight and get some important information about COA enforcement that we could feed back to the community. As we entered the meeting room my expectations faded. Bret and his staff seemed to be very agitated and unfriendly.
The meeting began with a lecture from Bret saying what we were doing was wrong and causing an unnecessary burden on his staff. He went on to tell us Olivia was an approved project that had been fully litigated. In other words, shut up and move on. I am not sure why he thought this approach would work because it never does—and it didn’t work this time.
Gary pushed back telling Bret we did not come to the meeting to receive a lecture from him, and I advised Bret we were aware Olivia was an approved project and we were at the construction and oversight stage (which I thought was the purpose of the meeting). At this point, Bret gave us a stern warning that if we did not behave, he would end the meeting.
We tried many times to ask Andrew Kennedy questions about their level of oversight and violations of the COA we have observed, (dust/particulate control, lack of perimeter fencing, hydroseeding, and rodent control, which was generating all the questions and community outrage) but Andrew Kennedy was rude and condescending. He proceeded to tell us the developer has complied with all the COA’s and then bragged about his qualifications. I showed him a picture of the dust being generated by a bulldozer on the site, but he got annoyed and did not want to look at it.
Larry was disengaged and busy looking at his iPad until he started scolding us in a loud voice for bringing up gaps in past COA violations. The meeting went downhill from there and Bret did nothing to control his staff or try to de-escalate the situation. Then they loudly called an end to the meeting and Bret shouted “Get out”.
It is apparent to me that Bret and his staff came to the meeting angry, and confrontational and were very agitated that we would have the audacity to question their management of Olivia and point out gaps in COA enforcement. This meeting would have been a good opportunity for Bret to bring us together on Olivia, but he either doesn’t know how or did not want to reach a resolution. Clayton has always welcomed community input, concerns,and questions from citizens. This is usually how a small town works and always has in Clayton.
I am shocked by the unprofessional behavior displayed by Bret and his staff at this meeting and his unprofessional handling of Olivia. I have facilitated and attended many community meetings for over 30 years as a former councilmember and mayor right here in Clayton, and Public Affairs Manager for a Fortune 100 company, with public officials, elected officials, and angry community members. In my experience, Bret’s childish and abusive approach does not work. Normally citizens look to city officials for answers and leadership.
Based on these two incidents, it appears to me Bret could use some additional training. I would suggest the council urge him to receive additional training in the following areas:
1. Anger Management
2. Community Relations
3. Community Outreach Meetings with an Angry Crowd
4. De-escalation Techniques and Skills
5. How to Manage a Controversial Development
(All of which are available through the University of Phoenix Online College or Diablo Valley College,)
Please be guided accordingly and take appropriate action.
Sincerely,
Bill Walcutt
We appreciate you for reading this article.
--------------------------------------------------------
Please support our cause with a small donation today!
Go get them, Bill. I’m so glad Brett resigned and moved on. He was terrible for this little city. His woke agenda belongs somewhere else.
ReplyDelete